U.S. Stocks Skirt Global Selloff as Utilities, Oracle Advance (Eric Martin)

  The U.S. stock market skirted a global selloff as shares of companies whose earnings are less reliant on economic swings led a midday recovery.

  March 1 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. stock market skirted a global selloff as shares of companies whose earnings are less reliant on economic swings led a midday recovery.

  Utilities, led by Duke Energy Corp., gained the most among 10 industry groups in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. Oracle Corp. had its biggest rally since September after the world's third-largest software company announced a $3.3 billion purchase.

  Both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for a sixth time in seven days. Slowing profit growth, an increase in bad home loans and signs that manufacturing is contracting have raised concern the economy is headed for a recession. An advance in the Japanese yen also increased borrowing costs for speculators who helped pace a four-year bull market in the U.S.

  ``The probability of a recession in 2007 is probably higher than 50 percent,'' said Douglas Cliggott, who helps manage about $25 million as chief investment officer at Dover Management LLC in Greenwich, Connecticut. ``If you're a trading-oriented investor, maybe the best thing to do would be to focus on very defensive ideas.''

  The S&P 500 fell 1.87, or 0.1 percent, to 1404.95 as of 11:47 a.m. in New York. It earlier slumped as much as 1.8 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 22.83, or 0.2 percent, to 12,245.80. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 7.37, or 0.3 percent, to 2408.78.

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